Sunday 5 December 2010

What does France and Australia have in common besides national wine industries?


It has long been thought a national shame that in Australia the indigenous population is over represented in the prison system.
This is seen as indicative of both a failure of society to respond appropriately to Aboriginal social, cultural and economic needs and, as possible evidence of bias within the justice system.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics publication Corrective Services, Australia, Mar 2009 states:

Nationally, the December quarter 2008 average daily imprisonment rate was 166 prisoners per 100,000 adult population, an increase of 2% from the December quarter 2007 (163 prisoners). The Northern Territory had the highest imprisonment rate (629 prisoners per 100,000 adult population), followed by Western Australia (240) and New South Wales (184).....

The national average daily Indigenous imprisonment rate in the December quarter 2008 was 2,240 per 100,000 adult Indigenous population, an increase of 1% from the previous quarter, and a 3% increase from the December quarter 2007.
The highest Indigenous imprisonment rate was recorded in Western Australia (3,811 Indigenous prisoners per 100,000 adult Indigenous population), followed by New South Wales (2,423) and South Australia (2,413). The lowest Indigenous imprisonment rate was recorded in Tasmania (614), followed by the Australian Capital Territory (1,004)......
The national age standardised Indigenous imprisonment rate from the annual Prisoner Census conducted at June 2008 was over 13 times higher (1,769 per 100,000 adult Indigenous population) than the rate for non-Indigenous persons (133 per 100,000 adult non-Indigenous population).


In France it would appear that persons from Islamic backgrounds who make up only an estimated ten per cent of the total population may also be over-represented within the justice system (possibly based in some measure on institutionalised bias) as this observer admits that the French prison population is thought to be over fifty per cent Muslim.

From Wikileaks Cablegate website:

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 04 PARIS 005539
SIPDIS  E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/16/2015..... 
SUBJECT: PUTTING OUT BRUSHFIRES: FRANCE AND ISLAMIC EXTREMISM .......
¶1. (C) Summary:....According to recent press reports, the RG,
France's police intelligence service, estimates that 6 million Muslims
live in France, approximately 10 percent of the population.......
¶2. (C) In the Muslim community of some six million, 70
percent are estimated to be of North African (Algeria,
Morocco, and Tunisia) origin. Other sizable groups include
Turks and Pakistanis. Within this overall population, the RG
estimates (according to recent press reports) that roughly
9,000 could be considered extremist, or, just over one-tenth
of one percent.....
¶3. (U) Two specific sources of Islamic extremism are of
special interest. First is the French prison system, with a
population that is estimated at over 50 percent Muslim.....

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